


Rewritten

by TaraMinia



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Past Lives, Comfort, Fluff, Lime, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Spiritual, etc... - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-18
Updated: 2014-02-08
Packaged: 2017-12-29 17:45:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1008253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaraMinia/pseuds/TaraMinia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever since Eren Jaeger was a child, he had been receiving unexpected dreams of a giant human eating inhuman creature of all kinds. As he grew older, he posted blog stories of his recent dreams. However, one day, he had been on hiatus due to the fact he wasn't able to figure out who was the one man who saved his life in that illusionary mind. Up to then, he started searching for his role-model of a character he never seemed to identify. When that day came, he noticed a certain someone who fitted the role perfectly. He just had to have him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue I

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to thank my friend Charlene for being my first beta on this first story for Shingeki no Kyojin I took seriously. I also would like to thank her for giving me motivation to not give up on my writing which I really wish this would be easier.
> 
> For only this chapter, never thought it would take us a week to finish it... (:

_Meet Eren Jaeger_

IT was hot.

That was the first thing that came into Eren's fuzzy mind for a mere split second before it disappeared. Whatever made him extremely hot, was burning his tanned skin to rotten hell, cooking his raw flesh alive. And if anyone actually thought that it felt good in the very beginning, well they were completely and absolutely wrong to no end, where meets abyss of nothingness. This burn wasn't something affectionate nor pleasurable, no. It was as if he was entirely surrounded by raging fire flaring furiously like it kept growing and growing, caused by an explosive reaction by and touched with a lit match. The feeling of his hydrated skin peeling off to a crisp and ash—which could be blown away by the wind—made him shudder uncomfortably. It was painful and it throbbed every single part of his body continuously that he couldn't think of anything to stop it when it came out of no where. Oh, how it hurt.

He kept sweating since he first woke up to his conscious. He wasn't at fault for it to happen too. Not only his pain came out of no where, but the running sweat as well. He felt his face coated with his own disgusting body moist resulting into having his brunette hair plastered all around his forehead in a messy ruffle. It steamed as it evaporated as soon as another coat of his body's perspire extract his skin by the insanely crazed heat. It was sickening honestly. How did it come to this, he wondered.

Later, he then wondered how he actually ended up in here in the first place, an unknown location he never recalled to be in, but it somewhat felt familiar to him, yet unsatisfying to long in such a place. He didn't have a clue as to where he was being situated at the moment. He couldn't remember at all; how this happened. He remembered that the last time, he was at... Oh, dear him, he couldn't even remember where he had last been as well. Wherever he was, he wasn't able to move a single muscle of his weakened body due to the fact he was attached to burning flesh itself. His face, his arms, his legs, his torso—everywhere. He couldn't tell if the flesh belonged to him or if it was something else that had him wrapped around in this odd situation.

That aside, he wasn't afraid of course, but he was extremely confused about everything that was going on. What could he do if there was nothing to do at this moment. His mind was blank as white, blank as emptiness, even if he tried thinking of something—anything, it wouldn't bother crossing in. His memories had been erased for a short period of time, temporarily, well that was what he figured. He was in deep trouble.

His eyes blurred in a blinding haze, whitening his sight that he couldn't focus on escaping this sucked up place. He shut them tightly to regain strength and mental ability. He needed to do at least something--something to bring up his spirit into motivation, get his brain working. However, it didn't happen because he did feel somewhat sleepy for some time now. Yes, he felt tired. Very tired. He thought that maybe he should take a little nap and rest for the time being for at least a few minutes. His muscles he didn't know were tense, had relaxed itself as he let his well being escape his body.

Before he had the chance to leave his mind to tranquil by his heavy lids dragging him to possible eternal sleep, a loud sloshing sound interrupted right next to his ear. He cracked opened his tired eyes slowly and looked over lazily to the corners of his viewpoint. A shiny, bloody, silver and rectangular sword ripping through the pile muscled of flesh that kept him still. The cut tugging the meat had been forced away from his skin, in the process of seeing the exit he wished earlier to go to. Who was bothering him, he begrudged mentally. All he wanted to do was be left at peace and leave the world of reality for a short while. So he groaned and shut back his eyes.

Before he knew it, he was roughly pulled out of the heating strong muscles that planted and attached itself on his body. A new breeze of air tickled his fiery skin. It was cold. He was cold now, like a cold water pooling around his fevered body. He missed that hell hole place he had just been in just earlier. It felt good.

Although, as much as wanted to protest whoever—whatever had him out of it, he was too weak to voice out his feelings, too weak to even move a finger in his state. Somehow, as his upper body was freed, his body felt incredibly heavy that he wasn't able to hold it up physically; he was about to fall back until something hard hit his back, along with a wrap around him for support. What was holding him? He didn't know, so his green eyes shifted downwards to see, until the sight sunk into his now renew fresh mind, consciously. Ah, arms. He was being held by strong arms. He believed this felt better than when he was attached by tight strings of flesh that pulled his skin like a blood-sucking leech. These arms were gentler, and delicate. He wished to remain like this longer. He closed his eyes, slumping over to the unidentified person.

_'Eren.'_

His eyes opened back again as he was being called by a deep husky velvet voice. He luckily had enough will to turn his head slightly as much as he could. The back of his head rested on a shoulder. A familiar broad shoulder. He looked up to see the face of the man he admired deeply since he was a child. His chapped lips parted but words wouldn't come out like he hoped. His throat was dry and it tickled him. Oh, how he wanted to respond to the man he respected all his life. He wanted to reassure him that he was alright. Right here. In his comforting arms.

He watched as the older man's lips stretched a bit, giving a small smile only for him to see. Oh, was he ever so beautiful. Such a gentle smile, a smile made only for him. So handsome—so perfect. He instantly melted like a marshmallow microwaved on a plate after about thirty seconds.

Eren cracked back a weak smile in response instead of speaking out his lost voice. This man had always told him that action spoke louder than words, and that was true. Well, only to him that was.

Staring at the elder's face, he just loved every single curving feature of the man who sent him mental care. However, the thing was, now that it was mentioned, he knew that the elder was utterly beautiful but he wasn't so conscious to see his face properly. It was shadowed by the sun shining bright rays directly behind him. Who knew why. Who knew why he knew that the raven was just so gorgeous despite the fact he couldn't see the detailed features. It was a mystery. He also knew his name, it was right on the tip of his tongue. Usually it would be spoken out naturally when his mouth opened. But when he said it lowly after his voice returned miraculously. It was unusual that he couldn't hear himself saying it though—that simple name he loved so much. What was going on? Nobody knew. But the man heard it, he knew.

Suddenly, he was given a gentle stroke across his sweating cheek by his beloved and a kiss a top his wet hair. He also knew that this man detested getting himself dirty by anything or everything, and yet, here he was, supporting a dirty man like Eren himself.

He was loved, that much Jaeger knew. And It was an amazing feeling.

_'Corporal...—'_

* * *

EREN jolted in a sitting position in a flash on his single sized bed, his covers thrown forward from his chest pooling around his waist by the rough push of his body thrust up of his wake. Dry heavy pants stuffed the room out of raging disturbance, devouring his innocent mind as several beads of sweat formed from the line of his hair rolling down his light caramel colour adoring face, reaching his chin and dropped away on his sheet.

Facing up the darkness surrounding his being, he felt his pulse throb viciously in terrify, his blood turning cold, paling him as it froze into place. He became slightly frightened out of no occasional reason, but terrified of the thought of a large inhuman creature of his dreams would possibly be lurking in the black pitch. That made his dark green eyes widen slowly with a hint of fear before getting his hand out, shuffling to find the switch of his bed side table lamp hurriedly, while panic ran through his chest. At the touch of a sharp triangular button, he quickly pressed it, ignorant to the fact that his free trembling hand clutched tightly the covers when it turned white.

When the bulb of the lamp lightened, its yellow ray shined in his bedroom, giving out a golden hue colour to every furniture he owned, meeting the light. Then his eyes softened when he looked around the clearing as nothing had been hidden within the dark while catching his breath and his beating heart. He calmed down a bit. He was safe.

He then looked down at his hands observing every single detail of them. Staring at the cracks that folded his fingers when he closed his hands. A thought triggered his mind all of a sudden. He didn't feel as hot as he thought he was, compared to his dream he had just now. He had forgotten that he was already out of there, but it felt as if although he was still there. Only because the feeling of burning warmth still tingled his skin. He felt quite uneasy by that, he balled fists onto his lap, grinding his teeth together numbing his jaw before he licked his cracked lips.

 _Again?_  He asked himself. Gradually becoming worried with his daily dreams of that same event playing over and over; it was fearsome, wonderful, yet slightly annoying on how much it had repeated itself no less. The constant reminder of a certain man in a free-flying green cape with a print of blue and white wings, different colour of each, saving his life out of a fleshed body, his deep soft voice calling out to him in patience and care, haunted him to no end for the passed two long months. Day after day, night after night, week after week, and month after another, he just couldn't sleep as he used to anymore, waiting excitedly for another new dream to read him another story--one that continued the previous one. But that couldn't possibly happen, not when he didn't know the man's face nor name. It became even more difficult to cope with.

And he was Eren Jaeger for goodness sakes, a newly eighteen-year-old, attending college. How could he still be such a baby over dreams he never could control after building so much courage of standing up for himself since he was younger in order for his half sister to stop getting so overprotective. Well, that always was in her nature to do so. No one could blamer her. He was loved dearly.

 

His adoring fresh grass green eyes, glanced at the virtual clock that flashed red numbers by his lamp—5:47AM, then he stared back into space. He could get back to sleep for a little longer, although, his alarm would ring in about fifteen minutes no less. At first, he didn't have a clue on what to do at the moment, he was far too caught up by the man in a green cape invading his mind. Now he questioned to no one in particular;  _How am I going to continue writing stories if the same dream keeps playing every single time?_ Letting a sigh escape past his lips, he let it slide for now. He wasn't in the mood to solve this case anytime soon, unless a hint finally showed up.

Tossing the sheets aside, he swung his legs off the bed to the edge and started tugging up his white tank, revealing his nudity to the public view of his own soft lit room and left him in nothing but his boxers before dropping it on the floor as he stood up. Making his way directly to the bathroom to get himself wash up, he went to get ready for college before making his bed.

Eren Jaeger was quite a naturally tall brunette man for his age, somewhat about five feet seven or so. Due to his baby face, he was often mistaken as fifteen for quite some time now. Not that it actually bothered him really but it did irritate him that everyone distrusted and doubted him for telling the truth especially when it came to part-time jobs. What was the point of lying about his real age anyways? He didn't know. He was never the one to lie since he had always been a terrible liar to begin with. He may be well at hiding things, but that was far different than making an excuse when he could avoid suspicious with honesty that didn't point directly to the truth.

The young adult, as was mentioned before, had a half sister. A sister about two years older than he was. And her name was Mikasa Ackerman, now a woman of twenty. She had been there throughout his entire life since he was born. Sure, he was attached to her as a child but growing up, he didn't want his sister to keep protecting him every time he was in trouble, and baby him every time to the point where he'd figure out that he'd turn into a spoiled brat. As for the protection part, he wanted to take bullies into his own hands and fix it. He wanted to show her that he wasn't a child anymore and that he was a grown boy. And proving her that he was years younger didn't mean that he still needed to be called a kid. Although honestly, he secretly liked being pampered—just a bit—a tiny little incy-wincy-bit.

Moving on, Eren never denied that his older sister was beautiful. Their parents had once told them their past story as to why they were half siblings instead of full fledged real ones. And what was it they revealed? It was that because Mikasa and he shared two different fathers, yet shared the same mother. That explained her beauty, Jeager thought, she must had inherited it from her biological father. To be honest, the two youngsters didn't really care about the troublesome situation of being halves much to their parents' relief, as long as everyone was happy. They were contented with what they had. They were blessed just enough for it.

Eren and Mikasa also had a childhood friend; a blond, about a year younger, a seventeen-year-old boy named Armin Arlert. And in Eren's emerald eyes, he had always seen the shy boy as a pure, white, innocent angel descended from Heaven, to becoming his first friend in kindergarten. Oh, how was he very fond of the youngest, like a little brother of his own. Not only that, Mikasa was very overprotective of Eren, but Eren was just the same for Armin. He could also imagine that Arlert was like a lost puppy searching for his mother, or a duckling searching for his mother duck every time he was confused.

How they met? Well, it actually all started with how Eren was openly forward that time, blurting ever so loudly for everyone to hear;  _'Oh, an angel! Look Mikasa, it's an angel, an angel!! Hey, you. Yeah. Be my friend and I will give you my cookies. Okay? Okay!'_  And that was when the brunette spotted the blond at the entrance gate of the school. What did anyone expect from a kindergartener? Wasn't such a thing practically normal for kids? Of course, little Armin felt a little embarrassed by the compliment and by how the brunette had such a big mouth with confidence by the way it looked when pink blush tainted his cheeks. It was an adorable sight. A very adorable sight indeed. Mikasa thought it was a miracle for someone like him to easily get along with the idiot brother of hers.

As soon as Eren fixed up his attirement with a plain faded colour orange shirt and jeans, he jogged downstairs to the kitchen only to be greeted by his sister. And boy was she an early-bird.

“Eren, you're up early. That's not like you though. Did a titan from your dreams finally eat you alive that it woke you up? I wouldn't be so surprised if my character saved your sorry ass again in order for you to keep your promise to fight the war for humanity.”

Eren stuck out his tongue, grimacing nonchalantly at Mikasa as she cooked some scrambled or probably sunny-side up eggs for breakfast as he ruffled his hair. Asking if she had toasted any sliced bread in the toaster before he came in, he received a head shake from the raven. With a shrug on the shoulders, he made some toast for them both. Waiting for the bread to pop up within a few several minutes, he finally replied back after a short while with a roll of his eyes at her joke and a scoff;

“For your information,  _Mikasa_ , I wasn't eaten by a titan. I was actually the one controlling a titan of my own with my own bloody flesh. If you have forgotten your part of the story, you found me out a little after when you thought I was already dead the first time. Thank you very much.”

“Ah, I see. So you're still alive, huh. Well at least I don't need to get revenge after whoever will eat you between their teeth, on their tongue misted with smelly breaths and down its throat. It'll be a very troublesome job indeed.”

Eren frowned deeply. He gave a look that told her;  _seriously?_  Placing a hand over his beating heart, he purposely dropped his jaw with a mock expression of being hurt by his sister's half-hearted comment. He played;

“What? You, my own half-blooded sister, wouldn't bother saving your only, oh-so-loving-beloved brother, from getting eaten by a human eating monster? Hurtful. I'm incredibly heart-broken. No toast for you, my evil-demon of a sister!” he laughed in amusement which he received back full-heartedly.

“I believe it's monster eating human, Eren.”

“Well it made no sense either way. Whoever made up the phrase's got no straight mind to make a sentence.”

As soon as the topic was already dropped and quickly over by the second, silence fell on them, filling the whole kitchen with nothing except for the bubbling crackles of the eggs and oils of the pan. Of course, Mikasa didn't have anything in mind to say other than her concern for her brother's education, but she also knew that he would just repeat the same boring thing in an uncaring way as all the other days;  _'Yeah, s'all good. Don't worry about my grades... mom.'_  So, she just kept silent to herself. Even if she bothered asking, she already knew the answer anyway.

The reason as to how she understood the brunette's mumbo-jumbo of Titantivity, was only because he had told her everything there was about it. Like how he had been having those dreams of inhuman creatures eating up people like them. He had dreamt all that since they were just kids.

It all started when little Eren Jaeger reached the age of three years old. He had been drawing several of inhuman monsters of all different variety of height, with possibly covered in colour red, which might of been considered as blood in many flocks of papers and as to all which he described the details of his monsters quite perfectly. Now all those had been kept away in the closet of the basement their father owned. Needless to say, the boy's art rose the five-year-old Mikasa Ackerman into slight suspicion with the wild imagination of that head of his. However, despite the suspicion, she was proud of her little brother for dreaming big like a child should be. She patted his head fondly.

Although, ten years later, when Eren turned thirteen in his first freshman year at Rosa Middle school, her suspicion grew slowly even more. She never noticed anything at the beginning, but she did start to realize that lately, he had been furiously writing on endless sheets of paper—of any paper and any crayon he could find around in his room, literally anything he could really use—about some story he had been working on every single morning right when he had woken up. It was also the same in school as well, as to what Armin had told her what happened during classes.

In order to find out whatever story the tanned teenager had kept to himself was actually about, she had to sneak into his room one night—after two in the morning to read a few random found pages on his desk. As a result of the progress, it all happened to be related to the inhuman drawings of eight years ago. After flipping through a couple more ripped, full, crumbled and other torn book pages, she learned what those monsters in the boy's head were actually called:  _Titans_.

At his age of fifteen, she had planned to confront her brother about what was really going on around him along with the crazy mass of paper pile scattered, pinned and thrown in his room. But before she had the chance to ask, it was sort of vice versa, he suddenly came up to her asking to be his role-model for some character she practically had no clue about. Yes, Mikasa was utterly confused to the gutter by all this, but agreed to it no less. At least she was going to get some answers, she thought. And, oh, the answers she got.

In the end, Jaeger told Ackerman about the Titan life he lived in the dreams he'd been having for as long as he could remember. He said that it was like a movie playing in his head every night, except this was something much more realistic yet unrealistic simultaneously. He felt it when he would wake up. And he never really shook away the feeling due to the adrenaline running in his veins of excitement. It dawned him. And then, he explained how much his bizarre dreams had inspired him to make it into a story he would post in a blog he had created a few weeks ago. He needed her and Armin's help to be his role-models, along with many of his other friends from school she was never aware of.

It was all too surprising to her. She never expected something like this to make her brother have a goal of his own out of the blue. He was growing up so fast along with his new experiences without her help at all. The life Eren was happily living in, in that moment, brought a smile to her worrying face. As long as he was happy, so was she.

That was how she knew what he had been spluttering non-sense about. He had been giving everyone—whoever was involved—a heads up of every update of the story he had been working on;  _Attack on Titan_.

“I dreamt of him again...” Eren spoke softly, voice low compared to a whisper as it interrupted the silence. Mikasa looked up at him from the eggs popping in the oil of the frying pan. She turned down the heat to a minimum and leaned against the railing of the oven with her arms crossed over her chest. Really, Eren never told her any specific details of the man in the green cape every time he had dreamt of him because he somehow had the feeling that his sister wouldn't be so very fond of him, especially when his dreams mentioned her character's hate for the one he admired most. Having to know about all the characters' different animas really had him understand more his role-models' attitude and life—or was that the other way around? Well, whichever he would meet first.

“ _'Again'_?” Mikasa shifted her weight to her other leg, leaning off the stove after turning it off. She gave away the longest sigh he had ever heard. Was she tired of listening about his illusionaries? “How long exactly have you been dreaming of mystery Corporal guy—“

 _53 nights..._  But it wasn't like Eren was counting anyways.

“—and yet you're not making any progress with that  _'Attack on Titan'_  story anytime soon. You already know that if this keeps up any longer, you'll never be able to finish anything, Eren. Do you know how much this can discourage you in writing? Discourage is the reason for giving up."

Sitting on the dining table waiting for the food to be served, Eren dropped his head in slight shame that the story still in hiatus for far too long while pressing the bone between his thick brows against his laced fingers. His inspirations are lowering him down night after night. He was starting to lose patience. If only everything was easy since not even he can control his visions like the way he wanted. It seemed like it was if that was controlling his life. It made him realize that writing was harder than ever to be expected, much more harder than remembering every single, tiny itsy-bitsy detail of dreams he dreamt of every night.

He sighed heavily. Life was being rough on him. Was it wrong to write inspirations, was it even illegal? Making his dream influence the activity he loved most—writing? He didn't think so. It wasn't fair at all. His frown turned into a pout.

As he was lost in thought, he never noticed Mikasa staring right at him from a distance;

“Why not just search for that role-model. The one right for him?”

...

For a second there, Eren pulled his head away from his intertwined fingers as he let the suggestion sunk in slowly. That alone gave him a reflex of reaction to shoot himself back up on his feet from the wooden chair which fell back with a loud  _CLANK_. He flinched at the sudden movement and the loud snap but ignored it all within a second. All his system stopped short just for a single thought.

 _Why...why haven't I thought of that before!_  He scowled at himself and chewed his upper lip out of a habit he picked up out of getting frustrated of anything. Now, he was completely and utterly not happy. Two months. It's been two months. Two months that he had been sulking for nothing! He could have just searched for his real life Corporal for his role-model for the past months. But no, it never bothered crossing his little damn mind!

He growled loudly within his throat, he pulled at his brown locks hard and he stomped the floor madly. He was going insane! He couldn't wait anymore. His blood was rushing through his veins and to his brain from both frustration and excitement. He wanted to find him. His Corporal!

Without using the mind of his own, his body moved subconsciously. His feet dragging him away to the closet to grab a thin green colour sweater to wear. Sliding his arms through the sleeves in a swift quick motion, he guessed that if he left now, he would have more time to find the Corporal's role-model sooner. After all, it was only 6:22AM. It was better to start now than never.

He hurried away, stumbling over to put on his sneakers and shrugging on his sweater again properly to get himself a little more comfortable. However, right before he could even take a step forward to the exit, Mikasa called out to him from behind in the hallway;

“What about school? Don't tell me you have already forgotten about it. Had the thought of finding  _'Mister Awesome'_ , let school slip out of your mind or something?”

Right then and there, Eren froze on the spot. All movements were stopped along in place, even the track of his mind. His fresh green eyes widening in realization.  _School_. How could he have let that one slide? He then blinked a couple of times while calming his running mind and system that were in excitement then took a deep breath and let it all out slumping down his tensed shoulders. Now that he was relaxed, he could finally think.

To be honest, today was the first day of Military Organization College, and Eren couldn't afford to miss his class of creative writing's course, the only course he had chosen since applying to Sina High School for College. During his years back in Sina, he had always wanted to take the specific course in order to improve his writing skills for  _'Attack on Titan'_. And luckily, he was accepted at the Scouting Legion program. But he wouldn't be able to do his work if he skipped. He couldn't start now.

Another heavy sigh passed through his lips from his lungs.  _Guess the Corporal can wait..._  he thought to himself and turned on his heels to the kitchen, passing by his sister while dragging his weakened legs lazily in depression and disappointment.  _Doesn't look like I'll be able to meet him._

Back in the kitchen, he laid his upper body on the dining table, his arms thrown over with a few muffled of low grumpy moans as his sister also followed by behind him. Dropping and smacking his forehead against the surface of the wood with a  _THUMP_. Luckily, his head was hard enough to be kept intact than break apart for him to get into a coma. Haha.  _Hard_. Haha, he was thinking wrong just there. How hilarious. _Yeah, it's not funny anymore._  He pouted. Again, he was not happy. His happy meter must have decreased to around probably twenty-five percent. Amazing.

“You know, if you're really that desperate, I don't mind calling in sick for you so you can find your... beloved Corporal.” Mikasa spoke leaning against the door frame spilling the words  _Beloved_ and  _Corporal_  bitterly as they rolled out of her tongue.

He shook his head weakly, sadly refusing the opportunity that would only come once in a blue moon. “Wish I could, Mikasa. But you know I have to go to college for my writing.”

“I don't get why you need to, when your writing is completely fine. The level of vocabulary and English is high enough already.”

“Well yeah, but there are still many things I don't know about yet. Good advice from whoever my teacher will be, would probably be a good thing for me. Maybe I can ask him to read  _'Attack on Titan'_  on my blog. I always do love someone's opinion on it.”

The raven chuckled to the brunette. “You give too much credit to everyone.”

Eren turned his head to face his half-blood from the table, with the widest grin he could form on his lips, “Hey, I had to. Without them, I wouldn't have gone this far.”

“True. Very true. Sharing is caring,” a pause. “Well, to  _you_  that is.”

Eren laughed.

* * *

“I'm leaving!”

SLAMMING the door shut behind him, he jogged away from the duplex building with a warm toasted bread stuffed in his mouth. He took his time chewing and swallowing the subsistence in any case he would choke and die half way getting to Military Org. College. ' _Never eat and run'_ , his mother used to tell him. However, he never got to hear it this year, not when his mother passed away at the age of ten. He wouldn't hear it from his father either, the loss had a great impact on him that he was completely consumed into his work and went abroad while sending his children money for school sessions and other important needs. Luckily, both Mikasa and Eren stood tall and moved on knowing that their parents were supporting them from a distance.

After the city's clock tower struck 8:30AM, Eren hurried himself up to get to the underground train before it would leave. And he was still far from reaching the subway. But time was enough. School wouldn't start for another thirty minutes after all.

As he slowed down his pace in jogging, he decided to go on with his little hunting session for his role-model on the way there. Between left, right, front and back, none of the citizens had satisfied him yet. They weren't what he was expecting at all. Just the opposite of what he wanted. But he didn't give up.

He flicked his green eyes to a man sitting down on the park's bench, watching him read a newspaper which Eren possibly believed was yesterday's news. He shook his head though; the man was too chubby for his liking. Turning his head to his right, he noticed a couple giggling right in front of a pastry shop. As they stepped out of there, the two were getting all lovey-dovey this morning, weren't they. He rolled his eyes; _how cute_ , he wasn't looking for young flirting lovers. Turning his head around the back, he watched a lazy-like guy yawning and rubbing his head. His clothes were pretty much terrible looking—he wasn't so organized first thing to waking up from the bed. In Eren's opinion, he sure wasn't the one; the guy was too tall and messy to be the Corporal he actually wanted. He sighed. He was looking for someone a little shorter than he was. Even shorter than himself.

For his Corporal, he needed the perfect role-model. Everything his eyes met up with believed that everyone didn't do to fit in the superior's characteristics like he hoped. They were all either too happy, too stupid, too big, too small, too... not of a clean-freak.

Eren knew what kind of person he needed to put  _'Attack on Titan'_  in progress. Sure, he had plenty and countless of role-models for his story in real-life, but they were necessary. He was content when his friends had agreed to be in it. It was a major help on his side. They were even satisfied with his lines of writing. As they said; the story-line had an exciting suspense kind of genre. They liked it. He grinned to himself. At least they weren't offended with any tragic event happening with their characters.

The first person he came up to when he planned to make his dream into literature and publish it in a blog was Mikasa Ackerman. He was pretty much like a jumping excited dog when she didn't mind helping him with being one of his role-model. As much as she was his half-blooded related sister, his own character in his dream also had a sister—an adoptive sister, though. Since the adoptive sister didn't have a face shown or a name revealed in his dreams, he was able to use Mikasa to place the pieces together. And guess what? Those two matched perfectly. Although, he never did understand why.

In  _'Attack on Titan'_ , the story went on how he and  _'Mikasa'_  became adoptive siblings. Apparently, he dreamt that  _'Mikasa'_ lived a happy life with her mother and father in a cabin hidden within the thin yet thick forest inside of one of the three great Walls; Maria. Unfortunately, they were killed by merchandise men who sold valuables, such as an Asian like herself, to the nobility superiors in Wall Sina for high priced money. In the end, she was saved and became his sister after that.

 _'Mikasa'_  happened to be quite skillful when they trained to be a soldier for humanity. She gained much respect along the way.  _'Eren'_ —the character of his own in his dream, on the other hand, was a little jealous by her strength but he made up for it with his determination. However, between real-life and illusion, both Mikasa's never ceased to baby him.

The second person he came up to for the progress of the story was Armin Arlert. Truth be told, he never hesitated to make a decision for anyone, but he did hesitate for the results. Even Armin matched the childhood friend of  _'Eren'_ 's in his dreaming wake. How they met in the imaginary world was pretty much simple. They met before  _'Mikasa'_  entered their lives.  _'Armin'_  was constantly bullied by bigger kids their age just because he dreamt to once see the outside world—where Titans have all been exterminated—from the great Walls. Of course, 'Eren' was there to save the little blond.

 _'Armin'_  happened to be highly intelligent with academics above anyone in the whole 104th Trainee Squad. He was definitely a shy boy, that was for sure, but he as well had plenty of determination written all over his blue eyes if he tried. However, the kid had always doubted himself because he didn't have the confidence even when making decisions that placed both lives of  _'Eren'_  and  _'Mikasa'_  in his two hands. Then, he soon realized that he wasn't as weak as he thought; it was thanks to everybody who placed their trust in him with their lives to the death.  _'Eren'_ and  _'Mikasa'_  were glad to see  _'Armin'_  slowly gaining confidence. He was getting stronger without their help. Another thing between reality and imagination, both Armin's were the same.

Just as Eren was about to cross the busy street between people, the fire light quickly changed before he had the chance to blink and take a step forward. The sign flicking from a flashing walking stickman to a red hand stop. He missed his cross. He sighed heavily.

Boy, he sighed a lot today, hadn't he.

For the time being, while waiting for the walking sign to switch back on, Eren took the moment to close his eyes and breathe the cool morning fresh air in his nose. Clutching his laptop bag-strap upon his shoulder, he opened up his wide shoulders apart, stretching the top half muscles of his torso by pulling his arms back with his spine arching until a satisfying pop hit him. It felt good.

He tilted his chin up slightly sniffing the city air from the pollution of several vehicles and a hint of scented fresh flourish nature of spring. The breeze brushing though his brown locks between the rooted hairs on his scalp felt nice. And the bright sun soothing his tanned exposed skin felt amazingly warm on his body, much better than where he fell in that bunch of boiling meat of a Titan. But that was all a dream. It was never real to begin with.

Although, he shouldn't be thinking like that when he would get the left over tingly feeling after he would wake up almost every night.

Sighing away for the n'th time this morning, he finally opened his eyes, the rays of the shining sun changing his green orbs into a golden hue as he watched the birds gliding in the blue sea sky under the fluffy-looking white clouds.  _Wings of freedom, huh_. He thought to himself. He squinted a bit by the bright light flashing in his sight.

Suddenly, before his mind could be drifted to the walking sign, he caught a sight of a little something that somehow pulled over his attention in front of him. Tilting his head back down as the crowd moved forward passing through the street, the wind blew hard from behind, which received a few squeaks from people and which he had to shield himself from. Lifting his head up, he stared at a man who was quite shorter than average, standing a couple of feet away through the crowd of people. His neat and trimmed hair with a well undercut, and his well being fit perfectly in a grey business suit—from behind that is, he looked good, despite the fact he couldn't see his face.

Eren stared at the man's back for the longest time possible as his eyes slowly widened. A picture flashed in his mind; a figure of a man faced away from Eren in a green cape with the blue and white wings printed on the back. That figure he was imagining was now standing right next to the stranger in the exact same position. The hair, the height—the everything. They matched. Everything single little damn detail there was fitted perfectly. Sooner or later, the ghostly figure by the stranger disappeared. His illusion of the Corporal faded in a blink.

Eren's mouth hung for who knew how long it had dropped. His lips trembled in either anticipation or nervousness. He just couldn't speak in his state, his voice failed him, but he thought;

 _He's the one!_  And he took a deep breath and then another, a step then another as well, before breaking into a run over to the stranger's direction.

He wanted him. He wanted him badly.

Because he was the Corporal's perfect role-model.


	2. Prologue II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Levi was younger, he had been suffering through a rigid rough childhood. Sadly, he hadn't remember a specific name he yearned for after the traumatizing experience he witnessed. But before he woke up, he dreamt of a peaceful life he never had before. He was happy with it. However, he was awoken by a disturbance of a task he accepted. What will he do when a stranger suddenly grabbed his arm and realize that he somehow, knew that person?

_ Meet Levi _

HUMANITY's strongest soldier.

Those were the first few words that had flew out of his little thin lips as a child. Considering they were difficult words yet made actual sense spoken by a little boy at the age of one, was pretty much a mystery among his parents. In the beginning, both his parents were trying to have the young Levi say either _'Mommy'_ or even _'Daddy'_ —or even both, if they were lucky enough—when he reached the baby talking stage then, but it took them by surprise that their little baby said words they never once said in front of him—ever. That confused them really.

Since his first three words, his parents knew instantly that Levi was a special child. A very special child indeed. To be honest, they somehow couldn't really explain it in detail exactly, why they thought of that, but they let it be. They didn't mind.

At the hit age of five, they noticed that little Levi would always stare out the window with his small hands pressed against the cool shining glass in longing and in caution. As much as his parents realized it, the little one would long for something—someone to come to him—see him. They were curious to know as to what it could actually before him to await its presence. His sharp grey eyes gave away the softest expression they had ever seen, one they never received from him—and they were with him his whole entire life. They did wonder what made him do so—how could he make a face like that. No clue. But his expression of caution was shown in a complete opposite compared to the other. He showed signs of alertness as he stared out from a distance of nothing. Eyes piercing through the crystal of the window. It was like he had been glaring as to whatever would come surprise him. Neither could tell if he had a look that could kill or a look that stayed stoic. But it was dark, dark with hatred that surrounded his little body. Yes, Levi was a child whom nobody could understand. How he seemed to be in his own little world so often, every minute of every day.

As he grew older, at the age of seven, the young raven had been having fearsome nightmares lately, night after night. He moaned, he screamed, he cried, he tossed and turned in his sleep; those actions alone worry his parents simultaneously. How could they know what was going on, when their child never spoke of it on the first night? Was it because he was so young that he would immediately forget right after waking up? It was a possibility. It was a possible theory, because it could be true. Well, they wouldn't know. Another thing they didn't know about their full-blooded son.

In the first night of his starting nightmare, they had comforted the scared boy, holding him close in either of their strong arms of safety and protection, patting his little head and kissing his forehead while whispering assuring words telling him that he was safe right here and that nothing was going to get him anymore until he would fall back to slumber. Within minutes to spare, just as they were sure their son was fast asleep, they were about ready to leave for their own bed. But as they stood up, the kid clutched onto his father's back shirt with tears building in his eyes—his sleepy wake. His innocent voice sounded so weak, so vulnerable, so dry, so cracked, it was almost as if he was—

_'Eren, I'm scared...'_

—Yes, that was the word; scare—

The father froze in place. Another word neither he or his wife had ever said—never had said, actually. A name, no less, he figured. A name he himself didn't know who it belonged to. Was Eren one of his friends from school? He didn't know. Did he even have a friend? Levi never mentioned any until now. This was something the adult had first experienced in his entire life; to see this side of his dear son at the stage of a breaking point. Another confusion when the male shared a glance with his wife, who was standing by the opened door from afar. They definitely kept that certain name in mind. But they had never mentioned it in front of him.

Ever since that one night, Levi's nightmares had gotten worse. Night to the other, he would call out for _Eren_ —whoever that was really—with the loudest cry he could make, to the point where the little one could have the chance to lose his voice. His longing for the person made the young married couple extremely worried and quite frustrated—well, just a tiny bit. Always calling for the name no one had ever known, over and over, the endless screams from the illusionary madness haunting him, dreaming of nightmares he never spoke about to his parents, were beginning to drive them insane on the second month since it first started. It was restless. Difficult to bear with.

Until the age of fourteen, the therapies his parents had assigned him to go to since seven years ago were a complete waste no matter what they did. Levi would always simply refuse to share anything of what he knew. Not even the parents could convince him for help. Although, the thing was, the boy didn't want any help at all, he claimed that he was fine. However his counselor did make a conclusion on the cause of his strange behaviour, thanks to the explanation the adults had given him. This was what he had resulted; he concluded that his nightmares were never triggered by the name the teenager had been yearning for, but it was all due to his first words; his first ever sentence. Now that was completely unexpected. That shocked the married couple. They glanced at each other. Was _'Humanity's strongest soldier'_ a serious crime for Levi to speak when he was younger? They didn't know. Another thing they didn't know about their son. Levi was different after all. No one knew what was going on in the boy's mind. Not even them.

Anyhow, since everything they had tried to get Levi at least slightly better in his condition didn’t work, they finally dropped it. They gave up. Everything. But they still loved him very much, either way. They would still try to give their son the best of what they could do. Hopefully, it would be enough for him. And to Levi, everything was enough.

Reaching the age of sixteen, about two years later, Levi had a huge argument with his parents as they were driving out to a friend's party late at night. The argument, though, wasn't as serious as many thought, but the insanity that was going on around him had made him slip out of the car as he was fed up with continuing his verbal fight with them. So, he just left to get back home.

In all about fifteen minutes later, the sky had gone pitch black. There were no stars, no clouds around. Everything was dark, empty. Everyone had gone to bed too. The only thing awake was the street lamps flashing yellow out in the open. As he made his way halfway back to the house, a bright, whitening light of a car flashed at him coming close from behind. He squinted through his fingers, shielding his adoring face to take a peek. And whose car did it reveal? His parents’ car. He stared at the vehicle driving its way forward. He then sighed through his nose and muttered about planning to apologize for his foolish yet childish behaviour when he was just being cared for. So, he just stood aside, waiting for the vehicle to stop by in front of him.

But as it crossed the perpendicular—or more like the two streets that met; a cross—, a large truck screeching the longest most loudest _BEEP_ struck the small driving vehicle into a big crash. Everything passed by so fast that it didn't progress into Levi's head yet. His eyes, later, shot wide open in terror. His blood rushed through his veins in a violent strong current in his body. The shocking event had given his head a massive headache out of trauma and pure panic all together. They blended. They mixed. It hurt. The horror. Every single part of him froze as hard ice, as the two differently height vehicles that were collided were now broken apart along with dents. Even his mind was frozen shuddering at the memory of the horn screeching his mind.

It wasn't happening, he mentally told himself. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He didn't _want_ to believe it. This wasn't supposed to happen either too. The car was _supposed_ to stop right beside him, his parents calling out to him to get back in the car with a light smile on their faces, expressing their apologies. _He_ was supposed to be there taking it in and was supposed to be there refusing to accept their apologies so he could apologize first, blaming for his bad behaviour earlier. The argument wasn't even serious—it was even their first fight as. _He_ was supposed to get back in there and get going safely to the party miles away. _They_ were supposed to get back home in one piece as the air surrounding them stayed calm, normal and content like it used to be. But that couldn't possibly happen anymore, now could it. If he hadn't left them, this wouldn't had happened in the first place. His parents wouldn't had even gone into that car crash. The car crash he wished he was in.

Levi stared at the crushed car against the truck's bumper. His eyes landed on his mother's red bloody arm that was laid on the cement street. The rain finally pouring heavily in the midnight light under the large full opened moon, with the blackest clouds contouring the round orb of light. He stood there—unmoving. His body was weak and dumbfounded to move even a muscle. How horrifying. His expression stayed stoic as ever, but his eyes ever so broken of his lost. What could he do now? He wondered to himself silently. There was nothing left for him to go home to. He didn't even have any relatives either to stay over. Where could he go to? Who? He just had no one. The only ones for him were his mother and father. He loved them just as much as they did him. And now—

He had killed them. Oh how he wished he could have died along with them happily.

But due to the shocking experience, he had even forgotten about _Eren_.

* * *

FOR some reason. Levi felt _really_ comfortable—wherever he was, that is. He was sure that he felt something soft yet light as a feather being placed on his bare back as both his chest and cheek were pressed against something else; hard, smooth, much more warmer. The motion he felt under his body was rising and falling in a deep, slow rhythm that he too, was also rising and falling, only because of what he was actually laying onto. What was it bringing him up and down like this? He couldn't tell. He couldn't see at all, his eyes were shut close and didn't want to open for a look. Was he sleeping? Maybe. But for how long? That, he didn't know himself. But he didn't care either. He just felt at ease right now.

And he liked it.

... _thmp—ba-thmp—ba-thmp—_

He knitted his neatly dark thin trimmed brows slightly at the odd sudden sound right under his ear. Whatever was under there, was beating a bit faster than the rise and the fall. What was that noise, he asked himself as he groaned within his throat to bury his thin lips against the warmth his cheek had laid on. It still felt good, he would of given himself a tiny smirk. He decided to pull it closer, his bare body flushed against the heat, arms wrapped tightly around it. Oh, how he would love to stay like this forever.

Now that his ear was away from that thumping sound, it now caught a light, soft breathing right over his head, the warm wind fanning his hair. His brows softened as he relaxed. Now what could it be? Not that he was complaining, he wasn't bothered by it at all, no; he was just a tad bit curious. As much as he wanted to look over to see what it was, his body wouldn't listen to him. He wanted to move like he did before, but again, his whole being wouldn't bother listening to him. What was going on here?

All of a sudden, he felt shifting—something wrapped around his naked back under the thin warmth of a feather-like sheet. The breathing wind he had heard a minute ago was now moved even closer in his hair. The inhalation and exhalation tickled his scalp, his whole body shuddered as the little hairs of his body stood, but he soon melted himself against the unknown thing he was comfortably laying on. He really didn't feel like getting out of it.

In the end, the raven's eyes slowly opened unaccordingly—without his intention. He didn't want to wake up right now, but why was he? The nerves of his mind hadn't even reached his body to move, not even close—or even at all. Well anyway, that aside for now, he finally stared at the cushion he was sleeping on since he finally begrudgingly woke up. There was skin. Body. Ah. So, he was on top of someone ever since, all this time. A stranger? He doubted it. He knew what kind of guy he was, and he wouldn't just randomly sleep with someone he disliked, would he? He mentally shook his head. Nah, not likely.

His eyes slid upon the person's body closely. He realized that his head was leaned on a broad chest—a man's chest, that is. He figured that he had slept with some dude—no duh—he meant, some dude he knew. If only he could wrinkle his nose. Amazing. He didn't believe he was drunk last night, because if he was, he would of gotten a hangover just a while ago. He glanced, staring at the details of the stranger's skin. It was a beautiful colour really. He's rarely ever seen anything like it. The man was tanned in some special shade of between milk caramel and gold. A couple of overlay layers darker than his own. Yes, it truly was beautiful. It was the first time he had seen such colour. He took the chance to take a glimpse of its features; the curved of his nicely built six pack pressed under his own milk coloured arm, the thin waist he had been hugging since he first noticed of his wake, the light pink series of scars on his body just like his own—wait, since when had Levi had these small scars?—and the feel of his own legs tangled with the tan's, under the thin sheet. He blinked for a few seconds;

They were naked. In the soft white bed.

When Levi mentioned he was sleeping with another man earlier, he didn't mean it _that_ way. He meant it literally, as in two good friends—he hoped—sleeping on the same bed after a long day of trouble at work and all. But in this kind of situation, they weren't just two men in bed naked; they were two men in bed naked who _had sex_. The raven would of paled, if he could because this wasn't what he expected really. He was a little too caught up with what made him warm and tingly from the pit of his stomach that he didn't notice the simplest hint that said _'I just had sex with a man I—somehow, yet possibly—don't know'_ right in front of him—or under him really, yeah, most likely. Incredible. He growled to himself. Just what had he been doing, fooling around with others for? This wasn't like him at all.

He wanted to lift his head to see who exactly was the one he had some fun with, last night since his persona didn't seem to be complaining. Well, whoever it was, the sex had better been worth it—or more like, worth his time feeling that as if he actually enjoyed it, in fact. Somehow, again, he couldn't lift his head to do so. His damn body wouldn't listen to him for the past couple of tries. Urg. Now this was getting seriously irritating. It was getting him mentally restless Couldn't he at least, just this once, be able to mov—

Before he knew it, subconsciously, his head suddenly lifted itself.

Oh... wow. Seriously? That was just amazing. Just when Levi didn't send any order to his whole being to do something for a good enough reason, it does it itself? Great. He mentally scoffed at himself. How stupid. How stupidly ridiculous. How ridiculously retarded... Although, it didn't make much sense to him. Now that he realized it, he wasn't moving because he wanted to, but maybe because it actually had a mind of its own at some point. He scowled. Was he possibly in someone's body or something? If so, he would love to get back to his original bloody flesh, thank you very much.

Just as he could let himself get distracted even more. He, again, realized that he was now staring at a young-looking man's face sleeping beneath him. Levi stared at the boy for the longest time if possible. The sleeping beauty was just as tanned as his own body. His chocolate dipped colour brown hair seemed to be—in Levi's opinion—very smooth as well as soft, and not at all glossy; like a baking sheet. The kid pretty much had a little baby face to fool anyone, maybe the raven as well. How old was he, fifteen—sixteen? It looked like it, but he wasn't so sure though. So, an old man like Levi had a wild jungle of fun with a teenager boy was it? He concluded. Well, he was pretty gorgeous if he said so himself. But he wouldn't admit that aloud at all.

At that very moment, his hand went on to touch the man's cheek without his knowledge. His very own lips pressing against the other's heartedly; with love, and with affection as his eyes remained closed. He pulled back and stared at the stranger again and thought of a conclusion at what his persona had done; So, this young lad was his lover, huh. Why, this wasn't what he expected. Well. All he could understand now was that his body really did have a mind of its own—or someone else's mind, other than his own.

He must be seeing a vision, that was what he believed. An after life? What, was he already that old that he had already dead? Haha... Well, hell...

Then as soon as he knew it himself, what suddenly caught his eye, was a full sight of green. Levi, who just sunk the colour in mind, blinked several times to realize what it actually was. And boy had he spaced out a lot lately. Why was that? He wished he could only knew. Besides, the real point was; eyes. The brunet's eyes. His mind was utterly stunned by the vibrant unique fresh colour of the boy's. They were just beautiful in those walnut shaped eyes. Then again, the colour wasn't really green, if he leaned in for a closer look. The eyes were green, yes. But the pigments held a slight colour of blue around the inner circles thinly of the orb, fading into gradient with the luscious green. And within that colour, had a few touches of painted yellow—gold, whichever was better. They changed quite a lot under the light and the sun. Those eyes switched—much to his startled jump, he had forgotten that he was staring—from sleepy to a soft expression. The kid was smiling.

_'Levi-san.'_

Ah, it was sweet. The tanned boy's voice was gentle as a delicate flower. His name passed out of those moist lips sounding heavenly and angelic. Oh, it was like soft music in his ears. He would love to hear that voice everyday he would wake up. He may not notice it himself, but in that moment, somehow, he had fallen in love all of a sudden. In love with this man who had wrapped his arms around his smaller framed body as he was pulled closer against his lover. Their lips met, chapped against smooth. Nose bumping one another. Yes. The feeling was perfect. Levi felt as if he was right where he should be. This was his home, he thought. The raven placed his head back on the brunet's chest sighing away cozily. He snuggled in the warmth he was carried to and closed his eyes. The two men were perfectly fitted on to another as to where they rightfully belonged; in each others' arms. He sighed with content. If only time could stop and leave them as to how they were now.

A single name slipped his thin lips subconsciously. He had to reply back, but he wasn't the one who was exactly speaking. It was the man where Levi's mind had been placed to. A body. His own body, yet not his body; his spirit put in a body. His body from an alternated world;

_'Eren—'_

* * *

_Delin-lin-li-li-li-ling—_

THE first ring burst screeching ever so loudly in the quiet room.

Levi opened his eyes slowly, revealing his dark grey eyes, his pupil shrinking as it met the bright room. He stared up at the pure white pastel colour ceiling facing his bed in a parallel angle for the longest moment as his cell phone rang continuously on his bedside table; constantly waking him up with an annoying default tone and a shaking vibrate against the wood. He looked over to take a peek. Who was calling him at—he shifted his eyes to the clock above the exit door of his room; 3:07AM? He scowled then swung his arm over to his phone and pressed a random key to shut it up to turned over to his side while pulling the covers over his head, shadowing himself in the dark from the rising early sun. He was still sleepy. Very sleepy. He only had two hours of sleep total before he would officially wake up. He shut his eyes.

But as soon as time passed by, he soon remembered a small part of his dream. He reopened his eyes, letting himself fall and get lost within his imagination;

 _A brunet kid_ , he thought.

His memory happened to be extremely blurry the more he tried to figure—remember who the boy was, the boy who he had, as he could possibly think, slept with. He knitted his brows in concentration. Nothing much really had hit him in remembrance, sadly. All he could remember was that the boy knew him—he did call him by his name after all, and that he was also incredibly beautiful. Well, in Levi's eyes, that is. He couldn't remember his name though, and he even said it in that vision of illusions, just when he was awoken by the stupid ringtone of whoever was at the other end of the calling line.

He sighed, giving it up on the second try. He was too tired to think so much than he already had before he went to bed for his novel; he was in the writer's block. But the thought of whatever the kid's name could be was bothering him endlessly. He realized that this was the first time he dreamt of something so peaceful as this. Relaxing. It was quite nice in his opinion. It was nothing like his past where he had the lost of his parents. In this dream, he felt, as if for the first time in years... happy.

A small smile cracked on his lips without his knowledge. Knowing that it was such a tranquil-like dream, he didn't need to think what it was really, was actually about to the fullest. However, the brunet with the unique special eyes kept fluttering in his mind. Why was he there? If only he knew. He remembered how he liked the way the teen said his name rolling through his lips, it was like tasting sweet honey on the tip of his tongue in his taste palates. Although, he wasn't so fond about anything sweet really, but this was an exception. He sighed in satisfaction as he could still remember the remaining tingly feeling of light golden tan skin brushing against his own milky one. Smooth as silk, against rough as soft sand-paper. The warmth engulfing his entire naked body comfortably, he felt as though as if he was an animal in hibernation during the cold snowy winter. It was nice, though. He felt like he was again where he belonged; in the younger one's arms. Ah! And also the smell, of the possible seventeen years old teenager, smelt fresh, just the way the raven liked it in everything, but especially on this stranger. The scent of fresh opened air of pine. It was a first for him to inhale something this unique. No one of Levi's acquaintance had ever had this lovely scent. By this scent alone, he felt surrounded by the tropical rain forest in a far away island miles from here. Oh, he could just imagine.

The adult closed his eyes to sleep, imagining his well being placed in the rain forest where the soft wind brushed through his jet black hair and flying his casual night wear; a tee along with his light pants. The scent of pine filling his nose, as he breathed in deeply. Everything his eyes would lay upon would catch that luscious green colour which nothing compared to his lover's—

_Delin-lin-li-li-li-ling—_

He snapped his eyes open in a startle. He was interrupted by another ring of his phone, _again_. He growled through both his throat and teeth in anger, and snatched his portable device in his hand before sitting up on his bed. He ruffled his hair messily while yawning widely as he checked the several missed calls in his history.

_12 missed calls._

A thin brow twitched as he stared at the high number. _Seriously?_ His phone had been ringing twelve times and he hadn’t really been awoken by that number of calls? Why the hell would one be calling him that damn much? Have they forgotten that he was a morning person by five in the morning? Any time before five, he was a grumpy fucking old man of thirty seven. Damn, was he old. And right now was about almost 4AM.

Levi squinted a bit to read the small letters flashing brightly on his screen. His eyes were still quite blurry in the mornings; they weren't adjusted yet when he had been startled awake. Within a few minutes taken away, his usual proper eye sight came back, in which he relaxed his eye muscles before blinking them a couple of times to test them. Staring back the small letters, he finally caught the first letter he laid on; _E_. He frowned in displeasure before he even bothered to read the rest of the name shown from his history. He already exactly knew who had been calling him at this time. He rubbed the back of his neck. And it just so happened to be his so-called good high school buddy; Erwin Smith.

He sighed heavily flopping himself back on the bed and spread his arms out with his touch phone in hand. He closed his eyes clearing his fuzzed 4AM mind. _So, it was Erwin who had been giving me twelve annoying calls so early, huh_ , he asked himself.

Erwin Smith, an old blond, intelligent friend, back in high school. At first, Levi never really got along with the tall man, nor even liked him. He didn't know why the reason there was to it either, but he did suspect that it was because the man was slightly taller than he was himself. The raven clicked his tongue at the memory he never planned on bringing it up. He hadn't grown at all, since high school started, anymore, which was pretty pitiful, really. He, then, stayed 5”3” for the rest of his sad little life, urg.

As much as he didn't like Smith before, he did notice that the older man was well respected among many other students, friends and classmates in school wherever the raven went. Was it because of his intelligent? Could be. His seriousness? Maybe. His attitude? Possibly. Or was it because of the way he maturely handled things? Most likely. He didn't know, but he did learn that it was because Erwin wasn't one to hesitate to making severe sacrifices of his own, no matter how good or bad the thought was. That, was how the short young teenager, of that time, respected the blond. There weren't many who would have been like Erwin.

One day, they were partnered up in a Science project due within a month. And of course, Erwin had planned ahead with the best ideas Levi had ever—could ever imagine. He always was a step closer in everything than most people in average. Levi didn't think it was very much possible for such a rare thing, but in the end, everything went very well and smoothly, that the project had gotten them the top mark of the class. It was very surprising for him, really. He knew that his partner was intelligent, just not that much of an invincible genius on top of that. Well, always expect the unexpected as everyone used to say, especially on this guy.

Ever since the end of their project, Levi had noticed that Erwin had been following him almost every single day of the rest of the school year, wherever he planned to go to. In the beginning, he thought it was utterly annoying with how the damn tall man kept staying by his side, asking ridiculous questions as to how they had gotten such a top mark. As much as the shorter man loved to be left alone with his own business, a vein bulged his pale temple. Smith was the smart one, yet he couldn't figure out how they've gotten an A? Seriously, ever since Erwin had been questioning him with blabbering nonsense with that stupid smile on his face, he then wondered if the guy _really_ was a genius as he thought he was at first. By the days went by, he had gotten used to his questions and intellectual talk—luckily, he hadn't murdered the man for growing his bud irritation hidden within his brain. But it all became a daily thing. He didn't mind it anymore. It was something he never thought he would like. He would then do the usual; reply back with either short, fewer words or with sarcastic expressions. They became friends for a weird thing; company.

By the time they reached college, it was a surprise to find Erwin enrolling in the same school as Levi. He didn't expected that. Ever. He did wonder if the guy was literally stalking him at some point, but he shook the feeling away believing that the thought was just all in his head. There was no such thing—no such thing as to something like that to actually happen with Erwin no less. But he felt as if he spoke to soon when the older man called out to him. He tensed, it was like he knew that he was attending Military Org. College. He hoped not. But the feeling grew a little more creepier time after time when they both also attended in the same program in the Scouting Legion. No no, he was just hallucinating then. Yeah, that was it. Just hallucinating. It was _all_ a coincidence. But Levi was never one to hallucinate at all. So, he confronted his friend, asking as to how they shared almost everything and if he was actually stalking the shit out of him, which completely was starting to creep him out. Erwin, of course, laughed and waved it off before explaining that it was all just a coincidence, which the raven was relieved of. They may have attended the same program, but he only chose it just to follow up his success to being the M.O. College's school principal. The shorter man blinked once, then twice. Principal? Another thing he hadn't expected from his buddy. With all the sudden confusion playing in his head, he found out that the Smiths actually owned the prestigious famous school. All the more to be even more surprised. Well, wasn't Erwin just full of unexpected surprising unexpections. How amazing, but that was what Levi liked about him.

Scrolling through the buttons of his contact list in his screen with his touch pen, he searched for Erwin's number to call back. He sometimes wished that he hadn't given his number away for occasional purposes, but he had to. As for Levi, he never did keep much numbers really, it was all too troublesome to keep up with with all the useless calls, the stupid texts, the constant voice mails and the annoying ringtones he never bothered with. It was such a hassle. But he coped up with them due to emergencies along the line. That was how he was so grateful for cellphones, they could be such an important help for most times he needed, or was needed.

Before he had the chance to touch the call icon when he found the number he needed, his phone vibrated faintly but loud enough to reach his hearing in his hand before the ringtone played its tune. In order for him to prevent the ugly song to ring and bleed his ears, he quickly slid the answer bar before pressing the portable against his ear;

" _Levi, my man! How has it been lately? It's been such a long time I haven't even talked to you, even though that was just last week. Oh, did I wake you up on this fine perfect day? Well that's good. That's what I intended to do anyway. So, I know it's still very early and all, but I just have this huge favour to ask of you. It's a real emergency after all. And—_ "

Just when Erwin had started his sudden outburst, Levi flinched slightly which caught him by surprise, causing him to almost throw his phone in the air in struggle to catch it before pulling it away by half an arm length. Even though the thing was a little farther, he could still hear the man speaking nonsense. _So the man knew what time it is then. Yet, he freely bothered my peaceful sleep_ and _my wonderful dream of my imaginary lover?_ He groaned at the man's endless blabbering on the other end of the line and ran his slim fingers through his messy bed-hair. The first thought that came across was to hang up and dropped his phone in the toilet so it would never ring. _Ever. Again_. But now that he thought about it, the blond's big-mouth reminded him so much of another big-mouth they knew back in Military Org. College. A girl—with shitty glasses;

"I believe Hanji's got her constant gibberish's spreading all over you, Erwin. Please do me a favour and stay away from me forever so I wouldn't catch that virus you somehow managed to catch easily. I've got Hanji-virusphobia." Levi cut the man off from speaking any further while rubbing his eye-lids. What he had just said may be a sarcastic joke but it was a little meaningful though because he really meant the phobia part.

Hanji. She was the shitty glasses he mentioned just earlier. Hanji Zoe, that was her full name in reality. To be honest, in Levi's personal opinion, she was known as an insane lunatic—he meant _inspiring_ woman, yeah that was it—that was what he really meant... No, really... Alright, so it was sort of true, maybe he spoke his mind a little too honestly than he initially expected. But that was beside the point, she was an ' _inspiring_ ' woman, one he had ever met throughout his whole years of life. She was, as he would call it, rather a strange being. She had been conducting experiments on the strangest things since college to the point where she would have gone completely obsessed over her researches.

The woman was pretty passionate with her works of experiments really and she tended to be quite a hyperactive kind of person when it came to a little something new she would discover on any day of everyday. It was sort of creepy. Anything new to her interest, that would suddenly come up, had her shoot herself onto it within a snap, which could even be heard. Levi knew that the blabber-mouth's lectures were very interesting, even considering the most boring topics ever spoken of, about her researches. As much as the studies could perk anyone's interest, she, however, would speak for the longest hours possible to drive himself asleep or to get through his last nerves. He admired her curiosity, yes. But not her insanity.

They met in Chemistry class on the second day since school started, and apparently, Hanji was his lab partner since she was sitting right next to him on the same class table, much to his other displeasure on partnering up with the freak. But due to her concentration in discovering new knowledge, she worked hard that lead them into having also the top mark of the class. Wow. Levi, for one, was incredibly impressed with her work just like back then with Erwin, sure he did part of his work too but Hanji's part perked most of his little interest. Especially when he saw the serious determination in her eyes, it intrigued him deeply into admiration. He took it as a good sign, until her seriousness dropped completely and popped the bubble of his admiration with her lunatic tactics along with a breaking grin. A frown crept the raven's brows. Did she just have to ruin the mood?

Hanji was actually no different than Erwin later on. She too started following them like a leech—a little even worse than Erwin was, really. Couldn't the girl just give her care in the world in anything _but_ his height? No. True to that, Levi had to give away sarcastic responses in order for her to shut up; _'deal with it and mind your own business'_. But boy was he wrong to the gutter of his bowels. He accidentally made her way beyond curious. He had to slap his forehead for his carelessness. What had he done to deserve this? Amongst the trillion of people he could have been friends with, God gave him the two strangest ones of all.

The brunette would often speak about his special kind of personality as well, which eventually included mentioning his past; that caught Erwin's attention. He didn't know much about the shorter man, now that it was realized. They were curious into how Levi turned out to be the kind of guy he was now; so cold-hearted, so monotone, so rude, so grumpy, so etc. But the last straw gave him an outburst of both frustration and annoyance. He didn't want to speak anything about that topic. It was a personal and a sensitive subject. What did they expect from him? A bashful kind of Levi who easily would get embarrassed with anything and everything, or a bratty short-stuff that couldn't keep his nose into his own business? Whatever had to do with his past had nothing to do with them at all. End of story. Luckily since then, the two respected his privacy, which was a good thing. Maybe one day, he would tell them—only when he was good and ready because he had already trusted them enough. But due to his outburst which he apologized for, that never made Hanji give up on bothering the raven. And he had to force himself to get used to this behaviour of hers. And, surprisingly, he did.

"So what do you need from me, what's so important for you to call me at this time when you could have called me at—oh, I don't know—when I'm fully awake!" Levi started at the phone.

There was a long pause that filled through the line when a response never came. Now, Levi wrinkled his nose within the two passed full minutes ticking away. If Erwin took this long to reply back, he had a little bad feeling coiling in the pit his stomach with where this was going. It probably wouldn't be good anyways. What could he possibly want with the man in bed? He suddenly didn't want to know anymore. He regretted asking his old friend why was it he called for. It was worrying him.

He rubbed his forehead out of possible worrisome then roughly tugged his hair by running his fingers through the thin raven strands of his head to the back. Should he hang up? He should. He didn't want to get involve with whatever Erwin had in store for him in that large genius of a fucking brain of his. He shut his eyes dropping his head back and took a large deep breath pulling away the technology from his ear. His touch pen was pointing directly at the End Call icon. Yeah, he should hang up, before anything bad would happen—

“ _You see, I have this teacher here who was supposed to be present. He's teaching, yeah, that's pretty much obvious, as you already can figure out. And like, you know, he somehow managed to get a last minute vacation to America just about yesterday. And since he's not here anymore, maybe you could—_ “

Levi just _had_ to hesitate on hanging up.

“You want me to be his replacement.” It wasn't a question. It was a statement, getting straight to the point.

The shorter man tapped on the Speaker Phone button and placed the portable on his table before swinging his legs out of his comforting bed. Once he was up, he missed the warmth that had gotten him to sleep like those dreaming arms wrapped around him. With a sigh, he then started unbuttoning his pyjamas off along with his night pants as the phone remained silent. He peered at it for a moment, he wondered why wasn't he getting any answers. Sure, he knew well enough that the man hadn't hung up on him because he could hear his breathing. Well, whatever cat got his tongue, he should—Levi blinked once, then his eyes widened in realization. What, was Levi actually right that Erwin didn't speak for a while now? His eyes widened even more in slight panic, his blood gone cold—gone adrenaline. Oh no, _hell no_. There was no way he was absolutely right just when he was randomly guessing, right? Like, he was being a little sarcastic at the same time too like he always was, he didn't really mean what he had just said, you know. Oh God.

The new shirt he held onto after taking it from his opened drawer fell from his grasp and landed on the carpet flooring of his room. Please tell him, oh good Lord, that it wasn't true. He, Levi, the grumpy, stoic, old bloody man, teaching students? No. He refused. Did God hate him that much that he was being brought to an early hell or some shit like that? How was he supposed to know. Sure, the only bad thing he had done was throwing away Hanji's Christmas present he received a couple of years ago, but that was only because her gifts can really be scary as to what was _literally_ in it. Anyway, he had done it once before; teaching, that is. And now, he wouldn't want to do it again. He wouldn't. He wouldn't! He might as well go to hell with all the ugly, nasty, brat-like... dirty... unclean... sweaty... devils... ew. He wouldn't even make it there alive for five simple minutes. Unless he was the one to give orders around. He hardly thought that would be possible. But this was Levi; there could be a possibility.

Snapping out of his little trance over cloud whatever number, he tilted his head downwards, eyes pinning on the shirt he had dropped a minute ago, or two. He leaned in slowly, fingers trembling to pick it up. He frowned nervously. He didn't know what to do, what to think nor what to even say. His nervousness filled his mind alone, cutting everything else off. He balled a fist. The thought of him teaching was really getting under his skin, crawling up to the shits of his bowels. And his bowels was a private place where nothing like that should ever be getting in, when his shit was supposed to be out. He didn't want anything getting in there where he would have to shit out twice as much later on. Well, enough of that, he recalled the last time he taught students; It was on his last year of university; Utopia University. Both his past college and past university happened to be somehow associated with each other, well that was according to Erwin himself. Like a two in one school, get it? Well anyways, back in Utopia, in order to graduate his final year there in his creative writing's class, he was assigned to teach in some middle school named Rosa. Another school that happened to be associated with his university in a five—Actually, let him explain a few things on the school's system in this country;

In this country many citizens were living in, there were a total of five different grand schools situated in the area and in which all were associated by education. They had the same connection because they shared the same school system, if you didn't understand. The first three were for students of younger than the age of eighteen. Despite kindergarten, it wasn't that much of a big deal, the rest were of a big importance of knowledge among everyone. The first was Maria Elementary school of five grades—from grade one to five. The second was Rosa Middle School for two grades on the long run—grade six to grade eight. And then there was Sina's High School the rest of the four last grades left—nine to twelve. Once students passed those three first known schools, they would be eventually sent to Military Organization College where they had three programs to choose from; Scouting Legion, Military Police or Stationary Brigade for a two-year time. Once graduated, all students would end up in Utopia University to reach for progressed succession towards their goals.

Alright, no, Levi had gotten out of the topic now. So, back to the subject. Back in Utopia, he was assigned to teach at Rosa Middle School in order to graduate his year, right? He may have accepted the task asked, but he later regretted it only because it was the worst experience he had ever experienced his entire life. Let him tell you why was that; the students were so noisy, incredibly bratty, and especially extremely and utterly messy. And you know how much Levi liked everything to be clean everywhere he would go. Even a little speck of dust seen would irritate him to no end, whether he tried to ignore it or not, it would haunt his mentality. And that was no good. So it was encouraging him to clean it right away whether he was teaching in front of the class, doing paper work or typing away on his laptop to proceed on writing his upcoming novel. Once a dirty desk belonged to a student of his that time, he would have that specific person clean the damn wood up until it was sparkling and shining in his eyes. He was very strict with cleanliness, there was no doubt about that. It did give him a wonder on how Erwin and Hanji manage to put up with him and accept his way of being such a clean-freak. He shrugged. Well, they were real friends—that much he knew.

As Levi was done changing in to some fresh clothes; a white buttoned up shirt and black faded colour slacks, he turned on his laptop to open up a certain blog he had bookmarked on his toolbar for months—years now. He clicked on the site then clicked to a specific story he apparently and particularly liked for some time. His fingers scrolled on the roller of the mouse continuously through the different updated chapters of the story he had been reading online. He then abruptly paused suddenly and pinned his stare on the bright screen. He sighed through his nose and slumped himself on his rolling chair, staring at the ceiling. _Hm, so Attack on Titan hasn't been updated yet_ , he thought to himself. How long has it already been since—a month, two? He sighed again then sat back on the chair while closing his laptop and strode to the kitchen clutching his phone—which was still on the line with the quiet Smith—onto his belt phone case. He very much liked the story published on the blog he took interest in a about a year or two ago. It had a unique suspense—it was intriguing, he had never seen anything quite a plot like it. Ever. Even above all books he had read since childhood. It wasn't this good as his own either. It was beyond amazement. If only he knew who the author was, he would have made an appointment with whoever it was for permission to publish it as a real book. He had that power. After all, Levi was a famous writer.

Waiting for a word out of his buddy's lips, who still hadn't spoken even a single word of hesitance, he warmed up some coffee from the coffee maker. Opening one of the several cabinets available in the white dust-free kitchen, he grabbed a mug and flipped it over wiping away any more dusts sticking on it with a rug before pouring his black coffee in to the empty cup. He added a cube of sugar and a small generous amount of milk into it, to cool and decrease the heat burning his fingers through the mug. He mixed the substances altogether as he pulled his thoughts together. He placed the cup a millimetre to his mouth, _maybe teaching again wouldn't be a bad thing for a second try_. _Hopefully, they'll be much more mature than I would ever expect_. Oh, how he prayed for a miracle.

“ _Yeah. That's right._ ”

So he was. The raven spoke before he took a mouthful of his bitter black drink after Erwin had finally replied.

“How long exactly?”

“ _Well, you know,_ ” Erwin trailed away silently. A muffle of soft words sounded off his cell as the shorter man waited patiently. The blond continued mumbling again. “.. _.for the whole year_.”

Levi was caught by surprise with a spit-take of his black coffee. His fingers had almost loosen on the mug which could have slipped from his grasp. The hot liquid trickled down from his lips to the point of his strong chin. He would of wiped it off with a napkin if he could, but he was a little too distracted at the moment with disbelief. _A whole year?_ His eyes went wide as it possibly could. He didn't expect that. Who the hell could replace a full time teacher for the whole damn school year? His legs weakened as much as his thoughts sunk in to his brain. He placed a shaky hand on the counter behind him, leaning his weight on the edge from falling over by the slight shock Erwin had given him. For a moment there, he had forgotten that he was a man. He blinked awake and sucked it up like one. He straightened, pushing himself up and off from the counter, gripping his coffee as he took deep breaths, calming his series of thoughts in his running mind. He coughed;

“And, pre-tell, why should I agree to being your co-worker's replacement for a very long time?”

“ _Because you love me and would never turn me down?_ ” The blond replied in an innocent yet amusement kind of tone. Levi's dark brow twitched irritatedly. He could imagine that stupid grin plastered on the old man's face, his eyes batting with innocence. Like the raven could ever fall for that. Pft, how he wanted to wipe the expression off. With his foot.

...

“ _Alright. Alright. It's because you owe me._ ” the man laughed through the speaker.

Another silence.

 _Ah, that's right_. The memory hit him in the head when he thought back for a minute. He really did owe Erwin big. It was such a terrible—horrific—amusing memory indeed. He dropped his head back pressing his weight on the edge of the counter on his hand again, recalling the time back in high school; Hanji had been chasing his tail back and forth all around school just to do some experiment she planned on back in the laboratory during recess break. It was a scary new experiment of hers, really. Not even a child would enjoy it. What was it about? Well, it was dumping his feet in a mush of disgusting dirty swarming worms in a bucket. It was traumatizing. Why? To see if they would eat his skin like they would naturally eat compost in the dirty of the world. A stupid theory, right? Very. Because it was obvious that that wasn't true at all. Everyone knew that. No? Well fuck you.

Luckily, Levi slipped his way in escape to Erwin's classroom out of a random door he had chosen above all room of the entire college. He didn't have the time to think of which class had a better hideout, no. He just had to get away. Far, far away as possible. And don't think for a second that he begged to be hidden. Oh, no. He threatened his best friend to hide him by cutting clean flesh out of his body if he didn't do as he was told. Of course, the blond laughed in amusement and waved at him to get under the desk from his chaser's view from the door to the desk. Levi, on the other hand, gave him a warning as he crawled towards his buddy's legs; _'When you see Hanji coming, tell her that you want to help her and replace me. Don't ask why. She will understand and accept it.'_ It wasn't a warning really, it was a trap. And boy was Levi glad that he tricked Erwin into doing the experiment instead of him. He may have never admitted it, but he was a chicken when it came to the crazy woman's projects.

“You do know that it'll be hard to keep track with teaching with my writer's block in the way, right?” said the raven.

“ _Well, yeah. But you might get some new inspirations while teaching your future students. You never know what sort of devious minds they've got in there. Besides, it's a class you will very much enjoy a lot. It is your favourite class, after all; Creative writing._ ”

Ah. Of course. Clever idea. Not only Erwin knew who to choose for such a specific subject but Levi might be able to share some ideas from students. Why hadn't he thought of that? Oh yeah, maybe it was because he never thought that he would be going back to school. Well, he replied; “The class I'm fond of, you did find the right replacement for it. Alright, smart-ass, when do I start the job?“

“ _Great, be at Military Org. as early as you can get here! Bye, my best loving friend who will do as he was told—_ ”

 _BEEP BEEP BEEP_. Erwin hung up.

Now, he was sure, the mug fell out of his loosed hand having the cup hitting the tiled floor with the clattering shattered short screech filling his bloody poor little ears. Every single little broken shards scattered all over the shiny flooring around his standing figure. He was pretty luckily to wear slacks and fuzzy slippers, or else he would've suffered some scars on his perfect skin. However, as for he wearing white fuzzy slipper, they were stained back by the coffee that splattered on them. Although for now, he didn't pay mind about it, he didn't get the chance to even notice that because Levi didn't move, he froze in utter shock, eyes staring at a distance. His mind went completely blank—white—empty—nada. All the nerves of his brain cells had been cut—shut down like a black-out. Turned off.

When several minutes had already passed within utter silence of the room, other than the clock's tick echoing through the thick walls, he snapped out of his shocking thoughts in a few adjusting blinks as his spirit was finally placed back on Earth, consciously reminding him that he was still living. Asides that, it didn't take long for him to transfer Erwin's words in for a second there.

Then he felt his mind screeching—ringing—his ears deafening. Eyes widening for the very last time;

_Today—this morning? Within a few hours!?_

*** * ***

BY the time morning had fully gotten up, the sun shining its rays through the open curtained window of Levi's view, he walked along his hallway towards the exit, picking up his keys on the side corner table and took a glimpse of himself through the reflection of the clean mirror hung on the wall above the side table. He nodded to himself in approval of his appearance. He was ready. So, he slid open the closet to grab a light jacket to shrug on over his tucked dress shirt as he picked up his working case and laptop bag awaiting for him by the door. He slid on his black leather shoes swiftly and tapped the tips one at a time against the wooden floor in order for his feet to fit in the material comfortably and properly before walking out of the house.

Once he took step outside in to the new fresh day air he inhaled through his nose deeply, he stretched his neck until a pop satisfied his shape. He stared at the healthy bright colour sky, running his sharp eyes around the curving several shaped of the clouds floating above the world. He sighed with content and lightly closed his eyes. _Now, this is relaxing_ , he thought to no one in particular. _If only it would last longer._ Oh, he wished, because he had to leave soon before getting caught up with the environment itself. He didn't have the time to stay around and loaf when Erwin was suspecting him soon. He groaned and turned around to face the unlocked door and shoved his key to keep away an entry other than himself before dumping the pile into his pocket. Turning onto his heels, he went towards his destination; Military Organization College.

"Off to school... Again." he muttered to himself quietly as the old memory brushed its way in his mind.

Just how long had it been since he last visited Military Org. College anyway? For all he actually knew, it had been several years where his graduation had ended. Then, he was gone— _poof_ —the freedom he finally obtained for his success. Never once, he ever thought that one day, he would go back there, not for attending as a student he once was, but for a _job_. He would be able to see his old blond friend; Erwin, who had became the successor of their school. It was a grateful feeling to have him know that this buddy needed him for at least anything; a feeling mostly every friend would love to feel. Then he would also meet up with Hanji as well—he abruptly stopped his tracks in realization, frozen in a stance. He almost dropped the bags on the floor at the thought too. _Oh, no._ Why hadn't it crossed his mind? Fuck. He slapped his wrinkled forehead with his free palm and cursed mentally. Well, he be damned. How could he have forgotten and have the four-eyed freak slipped his mind? Sure, he had plenty other of important things stuffed in his tired head, but still... He just remembered that the woman had recently received a job from Erwin a few months ago like he did. But she was offered to be a science professor—one she had always dreamt to be. The raven rolled eyes eyes. _Great, look out, new discoveries—Hanji will be there to fawn all over you like a slice of pizza I stole from her a long time ago_. Levi groaned through his teeth in displeasure and gripped the hands in his hand tighter. _Kill me.._. The insane woman would be the hell of him without even trying.

Shoving the hyperactive woman image out of his anti-Hanji mind, he continued moving on to his walk until he finally reached the end corner of the side walk. He stopped. The red hand fire light lit flashing all attention towards it while he waited for the walking sign to appear. Arg, he was really uncomfortable in this situation when he was suddenly surround by a big crowd of people squeezing against each other; all sweaty and everything he didn't like. He wrinkled his nose in displeasure. Just a second ago, he felt free, feeling the cool wind brushing his skin, then all of a sudden, he was restrained by a bunch of people. Was it like this everyday? He hopped not—but sadly, he knew deep inside; yes. If he knew it was going to be like this a while ago, he would had never accepted Erwin's task at all in the very beginning, or, he would have just brought his car. But, _no_. He never thought of that at all! He sighed. Yeah, he could of, but he didn't. This sucked. Couldn't this day get any worse?

Just as he felt everybody moving forward, he snapped out of his thoughts and forced his mind to work in concentration, he peeked at the firelight. _Ah, the fire light must have already switched._ He took a step forward. But right before he could plant a foot on the cement street an inch away from the flat of his shoe, he was forcefully tugged behind tightly by the arm which he almost fell back stumbling on his feet. A brow twitched in irritation. He threw his head around to snap at whoever had stopped him from leaving his spot. Oh—he was about to until he caught a caught a whiff of fresh pines. It felt familiar—and it smelt so very nostalgic as well, indeed. Everything he had ever mentally wanted was right here, right before him. And whatever it was, he wanted it bad—he craved it desperately. So before he knew it, he was staring adoringly at a young brunet, who held an a expression full of hope and excitement. So, he was the one who suddenly grabbed him.

When he stared into those green forest-like eyes, right there and then, Levi knew who this stranger was. The boy was Eren; the one he dreamt of this morning, the one he yearned for back when he was a child. And, the _'Eren Jaeger'_ of _Attack on Titan_.

If there was something wrong going on in mind, there was, because he knew who Eren exactly was at first sight but he never knew how. The name just somehow came up to him, subconsciously rolling on the tip of his tongue and out without a notice. 


	3. Familiarity

IF I thought that today wasn't the most bizarre, yet exquisitely entrancing day I had ever witnessed throughout my whole entire life, I wouldn't know what was.

Because, what had just happened just a few minutes ago—all in about ten, maybe twenty minutes ago—was an utter confusing experience in my opinion; confusing me to the gutter of my mind. It was pretty strange, really. I never would of thought that I would do something I never would intend to do, ever. Not even in a trillion years' time. Hell, even the people I knew wouldn't believe this. Or so, I literally imagined. But in the end, I did it anyway. How un-Levi-like of me, huh? What was it I did, you asked? Well, maybe it had something to do with me accepting a young man's invitation to meet up somewhere in six hours in the afternoon, along with accepting a small piece of paper with a phone-number written on it. Yeah, definitely unlike me. I wondered if I was sick or with some sort of disease.

Ah, speaking of that phone-number I received earlier, I slid a hand in my back pocket of my suit and pulled out that folded rip of paper to stare at the ten blue coloured digit numbers written sloppily in pen between the curve of my index finger and the pad of my thumb. My fingers carefully brushed through the slip, feeling the rough surface smoothened under my fingertips which was probably ripped from a book the boy kept at home. My brows unintentionally furrowed at the thought of it. What a waste of a perfectly good book the author worked hard for. Well, he paid for it, not me. But sooner or later, my mind must of drifted for a long time because I hadn't noticed that my eyes had been glued to the piece of material for as long as I finally reached Military Org. College. However, I left the real world for my little own.

I did wonder to myself as to why had I agree into meeting up with a stranger who was probably maybe half my age anyway? For all I possibly knew, the boy was fairly attractive to one that meets the eye—not that I would deny such true thing. Within the layers of his looks, I also knew that he was pretty bold—considering his way of suddenly grabbing me in public, yet shy for somehow embarrassing himself due to his absent mind. He stuttered and shifted a lot, he couldn't even mouth a word while I waited patiently for an explanation.

That aside, I could still remember the kid's adoring face printed thoroughly within my mind perfectly well. That tanned skin which must of been kissed by the sun, glowing in a shade of gold under the rays reflecting upon his flesh. And if it wasn't for the day's star; the sun, he would of mistaken his toned skin as a lighter sickly colour. But on the other hand, I was sure that the brunet was the son of the God of the Sun—if there was such great person. It was all because of his God-like appearance after all. And that was just at first sight before I realized of how silly I had been being then.

But look at the boy for Christ's fucking sakes! No one ever had such beautiful tone comparing to the many people I had met throughout my thirty-seven years of life. You'd have to be ridiculously blind for not taking notice. And his ruffled brown chocolate hair, messy as a bird's nest covered in shit that never reduced to such perfection. It fit him so well, no matter how much I had the urge to fix it up out of my cleaning habits. Ah, right, and have I mentioned those eyes of his? Oh god, his walnut shaped eyes. So green as fresh grass, yet so blue as the salted sea. But then again, there was a tinge of yellow as honey mixed within those pigments. It was such a fascinating three tone colour all in one as much as it was alluring and captivating. Well, that was all in my opinion. It was like the time I first met those mesmerizing orbs, I completely lost myself in them when I first turned around by the sudden grab of my arm.

Although, all in all, everything about this strange teenager—at every single detail there was on about him—all seemed quite familiar to me, despite the fact of how much confusion fused in my head with both hope and doubt.

A familiarity

Shattering the thoughts of this strange impossibility of nostalgia, I shook my head slightly, shaking the tingly feeling away as I brought myself back to reality and push open the large doors of the school's secretary's room before making my way to Erwin Smith's office through several turns in the hallways. And yet, on my way to my certain destination, I took the spare time to think back the memory of the event I shared with the kid back in the streets a while ago before we went our separate ways.

I could clearly remember the moment I turned around to retort at the one person who had suddenly took grasp on my arm off-guardedly. What first caught my attention was the stranger's eyes. Both beautiful and unique. Quite rare, indeed. But within that gut simmering around inside the pit of my stomach, I knew that I had seen them somewhere before. Somewhere unrealistic. However, it was sad that I couldn't bring myself to remember exactly where. And I was absolutely sure that I wasn't imagining it too.

When my own eyes wandered to the stranger's face, that baby round face. I could of sworn that I had seen his features before as well. And I knew that I was not dreaming about it at all. But the question was; just where exactly had I seen it from though? Oh, how I wish I knew. Maybe it would stop all these strange emotions of hope packing itself within myself.

However, before I had the chance to drag in another thought, I felt a warm touch brushing along my skin—a tickling sensation across my cheek. It surprised me at the sudden feather-like touch. Soft, gentle. That was until it took me time to register that the young man had touched me without my acknowledgement; with that disgusting hand of his. My shoulder tensed at the physical touch I never was so used to by anyone. And just where had that same hand been before pressing on my cheek, hm? Just thinking about it had me feeling a bit nauseous. I didn't want to even think about it. But though, for some reason, I somewhat didn't feel so disgusted as much as I initially thought I might, because I brought up my hand over his and leaned pressed my cheek against his palm, relaxing to his touch and eyes lightly shut.

How serene. How comfortable. How... nostalgic.

When I finally managed to face up the teenage boy, I never realized that I was... short. Not that I already knew that for several years now, but comparing to this young man, all I could think of was; shrink. I wanted this guy to shrink. I wanted to look down at him than the other way around. This one was too tall for my liking, just like with Erwin. Damn men and their insanely tall bodies. Why couldn't I have one as well? I clicked my tongue out of irritation at the one wish I had always prayed for. Well anyways. When I looked up, I watched as the brunet's lips part open then close repeatedly. He was hesitating. Was there something he'd like to tell me? It seemed like so. But what could he possibly be asking, let alone, from me? There was hardly anything for the poor kid to ask something towards someone he just met—

“I...—I found you, Corporal!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that the chapter is so very short. As much as I'd love to make long chapters, I don't have the time to do so anymore. With a new school semester and new lifeguard courses and a new job, it has gotten me busier than usual.
> 
> I'm truly sorry. I could only make short chapters when I have the time.


End file.
